


A Rest

by kay_obsessive



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Celebrations, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:08:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27159094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kay_obsessive/pseuds/kay_obsessive
Summary: The princess is gone again, and Link can only sigh.
Relationships: Link & Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 34
Collections: Trick or Treat Exchange 2020





	A Rest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Marshmallows](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marshmallows/gifts).



The princess is gone again, and Link can only sigh. 

He’d been frantic the first few times, but now – though worry simmers low the way it always does when she is out of his sight – it’s become so frequent that he is nearly resigned to it. He sometimes wonders if she isn’t training with the Sheikah warriors somehow for how easily she can slip from his watch.

Link rises onto his toes to try and see over the crowds but quickly realizes the futility of that approach. He steps off the main thoroughfare and circles around to the side of the nearest building, finds a handhold in the brickwork and hauls himself up. From the roof, he can see all of the town’s main square, strung with lights and banners and thronged with people, and he sighs again.

He should allow himself some leniency for this particular failure, maybe. The Midsummer Festival draws people from all around Hyrule to flood Castle Town, and the revelry is even more raucous than usual this year. Even up high he can barely hear his own thoughts over the roaring of music and laughter and the clatter and sizzle of food being cooked and served up from the stalls and carts lining the roads.

A flash of gold and royal blue catches his eye, and he leans forward, bracing himself with a hand on the building’s chimney stack.

The musicians and dancers and performers have all set up around the fountain at the center of the square, and there is the princess at the front of their audience, tossing rupees into an open instrument case.

Link skids down the side of the building and hurries over to the fountain. As he squeezes through the last of the crowd to the gap at its the front before the performers, he stops.

Zelda is still there, listening to the music. She is clapping along, tapping her feet to the rhythm, laughing, smiling. She is happy.

Link has not often seen her happy since he was sworn to protect her.

He looks around, takes in the mass of people from all corners of Hyrule here to celebrate the peak of the year, talking and grinning and singing and dancing. He has not often seen much happiness from anyone lately.

He takes a half step back, meaning to slip into the crowd – he can watch out for the princess from a distance tonight – but Zelda turns her head and catches sight of him. And to his surprise, she smiles wider.

“Link!” she calls, coming over to meet him. “There you are. I wondered where I lost you.”

He blinks, startled. They’ve been talking a little, recently, tentatively sharing their fears and failures and resentments, and Zelda has softened some in her interactions with him. But he never even considered that she might have actually slipped away from him by mistake this time.

Still beaming, Zelda reaches out to take his hands and steps back, tugging him toward the music. “This is wonderful, isn’t it?” she says. “You should come and dance as well. Even a Champion deserves a rest on a night like this.”

Link nods, almost without thought, and lets himself be pulled along. The music swells, Zelda laughs, and he finally begins to smile as well.


End file.
